RESEARCH ANALYSIS
5.1 Introduction
With the research data in place, analysis could be implemented through the use
of a number of SPSS procedures. All analysis was carried out with the intention of
resolving each research objective as outlined in Sections 4.2 and 4.3. This chapter will
proceed in the following manner.
1. Traditional promotion: The traditional methods of promotion used by Irish SME
respondents will be examined.
2. Online promotion usage and awareness: Here, a number of issues will be
considered. Firstly, the number of respondent firms using online promotion will be
shown. Secondly, the level of awareness of the various types of online promotion
will be derived. Any interactions between the respondent’s awareness of online
promotion, and whether they use online promotion will also be investigated.
3. Online promotion – the most popular techniques, benefits, and barriers: This
second examination will assess the situation of online promotion itself. More
specifically, the most popular methods of online promotion being used will be
established as well as the individual reasons why SME respondents believe that
online promotion is of benefit to their business. The predominant barriers of
innovation will also be described.
4. The Web Site: This will examine a number of issues regarding the use of web sites
to support the respondents business. More specifically, whether or not respondents
have a web site, if so for how long, if their company has someone with the relevant
skills to implement one, and whether or not the site it is mentioned in their
traditional promotion. The possibility of any of interactions between the length of
time businesses have used a website, and their perceptions of the benefits and
barriers (as outlined in the third section) will be examined.
124
5. The Users of Online Promotion – the accountability, measurability and value of it to
their business: This will examine those who do use online promotion, and to
determine if they are gaining value from their online efforts, or if they are even
aware of any value being created. Interactions between this point, and the amount of
time they have had an online presence will be investigated. It is important to also
determine whether these respondents had any definite objectives or goals in mind
when they decided to use online promotion, or if they were merely involved for the
sake of it, in a reactionary manner. Also, it is useful to note that if they did have a
number of objectives, whether they were met.
6. The Future: This section will examine the future place of online tools in the
promotional mix of respondents’ businesses. Two points will be highlighted. The
first of these will examine the strength of the respondent’s belief as to whether
online promotion is going to redefine their business. Secondly, regardless of the
strength of their beliefs, it is important to note if respondents actually plan to
implement some form of Internet activity in the next year, be it in the form of a
website or an online promotion program.
7. General perceptions: The final section will summarise the predominant ways in
which respondents felt that Internet promotion would change the way they would
conduct business.
5.2 Traditional Promotion
This section determines the primary traditional promotional techniques being
used by Irish SME’s. These techniques include the use of television, press, radio,
outdoor advertising, sponsorship, sales promotion, public relations and trade
publications.
A frequency analysis on the variables examining the use of traditional
promotional techniques yielded the following results, as seen in Figures 5.1 and 5.2.
125
Figure 5.1Most Popular Traditional Promotion Techniques
Most Popular Traditional Promotion Techniques
4.0% 38.7% 26.0% 36.0% 6.0% 58.7% 27.3% 9.3%yes%
television
%
press
%
sponsorship
%
sales promotion
%
radio
%
trade publication
%
public relations
%
outdoor
From Figure 5.2 below, it is evident that the three most popular methods of
promotion for Irish SME’s are trade publications, press publications and sales
promotion respectively. More mainstream and costly media such as television, radio and
outdoor promotion are used less, supporting the claims of Carson et al (1996) that
SME’s are frequently resource driven, and hence may often lack the funds needed for
these forms of mass promotion.
126
Figure 5.2
Awareness of Online Promotion Techniques
5.3 Online Promotion: Usage and Awareness
5.3.1 Usage
From Figure 5.3. to the right, it can be
seen that over 57 percent of Irish companies
use some form of online promotion to
supplement their traditional efforts, with
42.67 percent yet to use any Internet methods of
promotion. Bush et al (1998), in Section 3.2
suggest that approximately 50 percent of
SME’s in developed countries use some form of
Internet promotion. Hence, it can be seen that
Ireland is on par with this prediction.
5.3.2 Awareness
It is important to recognise that though a large percent of Irish SME’s are using
some form of online promotion, there will inevitably be differing levels of awareness
between the various promotional tools available. In order to determine this, a frequency
analysis from the data yielded the following results.
70.0% 86.7% 84.0% 50.3% 76.5% 69.8% 32.9% 23.5%yes%
aware of
banner
advertising
%
aware of
email for
potential
customer
acquisition
%
aware of
email for
customer
support
%
aware of
link
exchanges
%
aware of
search
engine
promotion
%
aware of
newsletter
promotion
%
aware of
online
sponsorship
promotion
%
aware of
online
public
relations
promotion
127
Do Irish SME's use online promotion?
Figure 5.3
Figure 5.4
According to Figures 5.4 and 5.5, 86.7 percent of Irish SME’s, are aware of the
uses of e-mail as a promotional tool. Assuming common knowledge of the area, one of
the main reasons people become Internet users is for the use of e-mail. Hence, the
author predicted that this high awareness level would exist, as a result of the current
waves of Irish people adopting the Internet, as described in the industry review in
Section 3.1.3.1.
It can also be seen how respondents are also very aware of search engines,
newsletters and banner advertising. An important finding however, is that respondents
are largely unaware of other methods of online promotion, such as online public
relations and online sponsorship.
5.3.3 Inter-relationships
Fusing these two findings together, one would expect that a respondent who uses
online promotion, would have a higher level of awareness of the various methods
available, than a respondent that did not use online promotion. In order to investigate
128
Figure 5.5
Uses Online Promotion X Aware of Online Sponsorship
this, eight hypotheses are suggested, representing the awareness of each promotional
tool. These are outlined below.
H0 : There is no statistically significant relationship between the respondents
awareness of (relevant promotional tool), and whether or not they use online
promotion.
H1: There is a statistically significant relationship between the respondents
awareness of (relevant promotional tool), and whether or not they use online
promotion.
By crosstabulating the ‘useonle’ (whether the company uses online promotion
or not) variable, with the variable describing the awareness of each promotional tool, a
set of tables were generated. In each and every one of these eight tables, it is suggested
that the awareness of each appropriate promotional tool increases significantly, if the
company uses some form of online promotion. Two such examples are shown in
Figures 5.6 and 5.7 below, in the cases of the awareness of link exchanges, and online
sponsorship among respondents.
Crosstab
50.0% 28.6%
50.0% 71.4%
100.0% 100.0%
% within aware of onlinesponsorship promotion
% within aware of onlinesponsorship promotion
% within aware of onlinesponsorship promotion
no
yes
does thecompany useonline promotion
Total
no yes
aware of onlinesponsorshippromotion
129
Figure 5.6
Uses Online Promotion X Aware of Link Exchanges
Crosstab
59.5% 26.7%
40.5% 73.3%
100.0% 100.0%
% within awareof link exchanges
% within awareof link exchanges
% within awareof link exchanges
no
yes
does the company useonline promotion
Total
no yes
aware of linkexchanges
Chi-square significance tests were then run on all cases to test the eight
hypotheses statistically. The hypothesis results are explained in Figure 5.8. In
conclusion, excluding banner advertising and the use of e-mail for customer acquisition,
there is a statistically significant relationship between the awareness of Irish SME
respondents of the various methods of online promotion, and whether or not they are
engaged Internet promotion. In simpler language, if a respondent uses some form of
online promotion, they are more likely to have a higher awareness of each promotional
tool.
Awareness of each tool Pearson Chi-Square Accept HO Accept H1
Banner Advertising .084
E-mail for customer acquisition .092
E-mail for customer support .000
Link Exchanges .000
Search Engines .002
Newsletters .016
Online Sponsorship .013
Public Relations .019
130
Figure 5.8
Figure 5.7
5.4 Online promotion – the most popular techniques, benefits and barriers
This section will explain the analysis that deals with the area of online
promotion itself.
5.4.1 Primary Promotional Tools Employed
Firstly, it is necessary to determine the most popular methods of online
promotion for Irish SME respondents, from a range of possibilities. These possibilities
include the use of banner advertising, e-mail to existing customers, e-mail for new
customer acquisition, link exchanges, search engines, newsletters, online sponsorship
and online public relations.
It is clear from Figure 5.9, that of the respondents that use online promotion, the
use of e-mail is by far the most popular method for Irish SME’s. This supports the
findings of the Webcmo (1998) in the literary review. E-mail is shown to be used for
both for customer support and customer acquisition. Search engines are used by 50
percent of SME’s. Online newsletters are still used by only 29.1 percent, and as argued
by Loro (1999) and Levinson and Rubin (1997) in Section 1.3.4.4, represents a growth
area for SME’s, as online newsletters are distributed through e-mail, and are merely an
extension of customer support, sponsorship and public relations.
Again, as is suggested in Section 5.3, the use of the Internet as regards online
public relations and sponsorship promotion, is heavily underdeveloped and could be
argued to represent an opportunity for SME’s to capitalise on, if seeking competitive
advantage. Respondents are not fulfilling the second of the recommendations of online
promotion suggested by Duignan (1999) in Section 1.3.1, i.e. that online promotion
should satisfy a PR function. This finding also supports the argument of Holtz (1999)
who in Section 1.3.7 suggests that online public relations is still “in many aspects, in the
womb”.
131
Most Popular Methods of Online Promotion
As regards online sponsorship, the predictions suggested in Section 1.3.6 by E-
marketer (1999) that banner advertising would migrate eventually to online sponsorship
by 2001, which would comprise 58 percent of online ads, seem unlikely in the context
of this survey. This is as a result of the very low level (5.8 percent) of respondents that
use this form of promotion.
5.4.2 Benefits / Reasons of Use
With an understanding of the most popular methods of online promotion in
place, the analytical process turned to determining the reasons why respondents felt that
online promotion could benefit their business. Figure 5.11 display the most important
reasons as to why Irish SME respondents feel that online promotion is beneficial.
132
Figure 5.9
The mean level of agreement for each statement is shown in visual form in
Figure 5.10. To explain briefly, the higher the mean, the higher the preference, from 1,
strongly disagree to 5, strongly agree, with 3 as a neutral midpoint.
Below are the top benefits of online promotion for Irish SME respondents.
Reason 1: To broaden their markets
Reason 2: To look for new customers
Reason 3: To communicate with existing customers
Reason 4: To gain an innovative image
Reason 5: For customer service
Reason 6: For direct sales
Reason 7: To achieve cost savings
Reason 8: Because a competitor uses them
Reason 9: Because Internet promotion is more measurable
133
Figure 5.10
The predominant reasons respondents are promoting online are to broaden their
markets and look for new customers. This is in agreement with Dolgenos (1996) and
Kantor and Neubarth (1996) who in Section 1.5 argue the advantages of online
promotion over traditional methods as a result of the possibilities of extended market, or
global reach. The third most important reason is that of communication with existing
customers, or customer relations. Interestingly, the factor of cost saving is recognised
by respondents as the second least important factor. This is in disagreement with Seger
(1999) who in the industry review, in section 1.3.4 defends the cost saving advantages
of e-mail for SME’s as the primary benefit of online promotion.
Following these observations, it is possible to see the strength of the benefits as
a whole, by creating a new variable, which consists of the sum up the responses of each
case, in each variable.
For example, someone answering strongly disagree for all questions would
receive a score of 1 X 9 = 9 (where 1 is the value of strongly disagree and 9 is the
number of cases), whereas a respondent answering strongly agree for all questions
would receive a score of 5 X 9 = 45. This helps identify the polarity of responses, as
well as the general level of agreement of Irish SME’s of how online promotion can
benefit them as a whole, by the manners suggested.
Statistics
Total score of agreement - reasons to promote138
12
32.2246
33.0000
32.00
6.1704
-1.346
.206
4447.00
Valid
Missing
N
Mean
Median
Mode
Std. Deviation
Skewness
Std. Error of Skewness
Sum
134
Figure 5.11
This mean value, from Figure 5.11, shows that on average, as a whole,
respondents agree that Irish SME’s agree to a level of 32 out of 45, or 70 percent, that
Internet promotion aids their business in the manner suggested.
This can be shown more clearly if this score is recoded back into a 5 point
agreement scale, but taking into account the use of all the 9 variables in one overall
satisfaction rating. This satisfaction rating is described in Figure 5.12.
135
136
1-9 = strongly disagree (1.00)
10-18 = disagree (2.00)
19-27 = neutral (3.00)
28-35 = agree (4.00)
37-45 = strongly agree (5.00)
Figure 5.12
Total Level of Agreement of Online Promotion Benefits
From the output, we can see in an overall context, that 81 percent of SME
respondents agree that the online promotional methods suggested would benefit their
business in the manners suggested.
5.4.3 Barriers to Innovation
As argued by the NCC (1999) in Section 2.8 of the industry review, the SME
sector is a vibrant source of innovation in the economy. Taking this into account, it is
suggested by the author as necessary to investigate the possible barriers to innovation
faced by Irish SME’s as regards online promotion. The results of this analysis can be
seen below.
Statistics
3.06 4.00 2.90 2.83 3.61 3.66Mean
not enoughconsumers
online
lack ofunderstanding/
skills
too costly/time
consumingefforts not
measurablethey fear
technology
securityand
privacyworries
137
Figure 5.13
Figure 5.14
Below are the summarised findings, an ordered list of the main reasons Irish
SME’s are not using online promotion. As described earlier, the higher the mean, the
higher the preference, from 1 (not at all important), to 5 (very important), with 3 as a
neutral midpoint.
Reason 1: Lack of understanding/ skills
Reason 2: Security and privacy worries
Reason 3: Fear of technology
Reason 4: Not enough consumers online
Reason 5: Too costly/ time consuming
Reason 6: Efforts aren’t measurable
The only variable that respondents agree is a barrier to innovation is within the
area of company skills/ resources. In this case, the analysis returned a mean value of
4.00. This is in direct agreement with Ducoffe (1996) who in Section 1.6 highlights the
how the lack of familiarity with the medium, and the shortcomings in business skills
and resources prevent the SME from capitalising on Internet opportunities. This finding
138
also supports the arguments of Bohan (1994) and Ó’Gorman (1997), who also highlight
the skills deficiencies of Irish SME management.
The author was extremely surprised with the low level of agreement as regards
the importance of the other barriers to innovation. This was especially in the light of
issues regarding security and / or privacy. The majority of respondents did not agree
that issues such as security, time, cost, measurability or fear of technology were
important to their perceptions of online business. This disagreed with much of the
argument in Chapter 3, which focused on key industry drivers regarding privacy and
trust (Cheskin Research 1999). Much of this information was however orientated
towards consumer perceptions, and not business perceptions. This suggests that there is
a possibility that the barriers to innovation may be higher from the mindset of the
consumer, and not the business.
To view the level of dissatisfaction with, or problems with online promotion as a
whole, a new variable was created which summed up the responses of each case in each
variable.
Statistics
REASONNO138
12
19.8913
20.0000
21.00a
4.4749
-1.160
.206
2745.00
Valid
Missing
N
Mean
Median
Mode
Std. Deviation
Skewness
Std. Error of Skewness
Sum
Multiple modes exist. The smallest value is showna.
Figure 5.15 shows that as a whole, on average, respondents agree to a level of
19.89 out of 30 (five levels of agreement X six variables), or 66 percent, that the
suggested problems, or barriers to innovation are relevant.
139
Figure 5.15
This can be shown more clearly if this score is recoded back into a 5 point
agreement scale, but taking into account the use of all the 6 variables in one overall
rating. This rating is described below.
From Figure 5.16, it can be seen that 66 percent agree, or strongly agree that the
potential problems in engaging in online promotion are important. 28 percent were
neutral, and only 6 percent did not believe that the suggested barriers to innovation were
a problem for their businesses.
5.5 The Web Site
This section will investigate the various issues regarding the use of web sites
among respondents.
5.5.1 How Many
140
1-6 = Not at all important (1.00)
7-12 = Not important (2.00)
13-18 = Neutral (3.00)
19-24 = Important (4.00)
25-30 = Very important (5.00)
Figure 5.16
Primarily, it is important to examine the number of respondents who have a web
site to supplement their traditional promotion, and whether this differed between
sectors. This can be seen below.
According to the study, 72.5 percent of SME respondents have websites to
supplement their business and promotional efforts. The differences among sectors are
not distinctive, the figures being 76 percent of services, 68 percent of manufacturing
and 73.7 percent of exporter companies having websites. The only exception is the
importer business sector. This is argued to be attributed to the low number of import
company respondents (only 8 percent of the sample) skewing the results of this section
heavily. According to a May 2000 report from NewWorldCommerce and The
Marketing Institute, 87 percent of Irish businesses (all sector sizes) have a website.
Contrasting this finding against that of this study, it signifies that the SME sector is
competing well with larger business, as regards web site presence.
5.5.2 Length of Presence
As regards the length of time that respondents have had their web site, the
following analysis was carried out. The 6 months to a year category returned only 2
respondents. Hence, this category is omitted, and is treated as a missing value.
141
The percentage of Irish SME respondents who have a company website
Figure 5.17
Respondents on average have had a site for over a year (mean 3.33). There is a
relatively even spread in the category of web presence time, as can be seen from the
cumulative percent in Figure 5.18. However, as can be seen from Figure 5.19 below, 29
percent of companies have had their websites for over three years, and could hence be
argued that this represents a significant number of innovative SME’s.
.
How long have they had the site?
24 16.0 22.6 22.6
30 20.0 28.3 50.9
21 14.0 19.8 70.8
31 20.7 29.2 100.0
106 70.7 100.0
2 1.3
42 28.0
44 29.3
150 100.0
Less than 6 months
More than one year
More than two years
More than three years
Total
Valid
Less than one year
System
Total
Missing
Total
Frequency PercentValid
PercentCumulative
Percent
5.5.3 Internal Skills
The relevance of SME resources and skills were argued to be a paramount
barrier to innovation for the firm in Section 5.4. With this in mind, the internal skills
regarding the creation or updating of a web site were examined. Some 72 percent of
respondents claimed to have some person in their company who would have the skills to
be assigned to, or maintain a website. 25 percent do not have the skills, and the
remainder consists of a small number of non-respondents (3 percent), who presumably
felt this information confidential.
5.5.4 Complementation of Media
Section 1.4 dealt with the possibility of the complementation of online and
offline promotion, and the scope that is available to the SME in this regard. Hence, it
142
Figure 5.18
was investigated whether SME’s with a website, and who use forms of traditional
promotion, mention their website in their traditional promotion.
In order to ascertain this, a split case analysis was carried out on account of any
company who used any traditional method of promotion, who had a website, and who
also used any form of online promotion. 85.7 percent of respondents fulfilling the above
criteria mention the website in their traditional promotions. This highlights the fact that
Irish SME’s are noticing the benefits in promotional spend and awareness by integrating
their online and offline promotions as suggested by Maddox and Mehta (1997) and
Coffey and Stipp (1997), in Section 1.4. These results can be seen in Figure 5.19.
is website mentioned in traditional media
15 10.0 14.3 14.3
90 60.0 85.7 100.0
105 70.0 100.0
45 30.0
150 100.0
no
yes
Total
Valid
SystemMissing
Total
Frequency PercentValid
PercentCumulative
Percent
5.5.5 Differences between variables
Considering the total sum of perceptions of the barriers to innovation, one might
expect there to be a difference between the strength of these perceptions and the amount
of time that respondents have had an online presence. This hypothesis is suggested
below.
HO: There is no statistical difference between the amount of time a respondent has
had a web presence, and their strength of perceptions of the barriers to
innovation.
H1: There is a statistical difference between the amount of time a respondent has had
a web presence, and their strength of perceptions of the barriers to innovation.
143
Figure 5.19
Length of Online Presence X Barriers to Innovation
These hypotheses are attempting to discover whether the longer a respondent
company has had an online presence, the less their level of apprehension or total
agreement, towards the mentioned barriers to innovation. Hypothetically, if this were
true, it would signify a learning process on behalf of the respondent, whereby the longer
their business had been online, the less significant the perceived barriers to innovation
would be, as a result of the knowledge and learning gained over time on behalf of the
business.
In order to carry out the analysis of these two subgroups the categorical variable,
‘web_time’, or the amount of time a respondent had a web site presence, needed to be
recoded from a variable with five cases, to a mutually exclusive variable with two cases.
For this reason, the ‘web_time’ variable was recoded into two cases, ‘less than two
years’ (0) and ‘more than two years’ (1). The ‘web_time’ variable was then assigned as
the independent, or categorical variable, with ‘reasonno’ (the total sum of agreement of
the barriers to innovation) as described in objective six, being the dependant, or
continuous variable. A means test, and a summary bar chart was then run, yielding the
7following results, described in Figure 5.20 and Figure 5.21.
These observations were then compared with an Independent Samples T-Test
(Figure 5.23). By observing the Levene’s Test Sig. Value, and noting whether it is
above or below .005, we are directed to note either the top or bottom Sig. (2-tailed)
values respectively. If this value is greater than .05, then we accept the null hypothesis,
and vice-versa.
144
how long
more than two yearsless than two years
Me
an
RE
AS
ON
NO
19.70
19.68
19.66
19.64
19.62
19.60
19.58
19.56
19.54
19.69
19.56
Report
REASONNO
19.5600 25 5.0915
19.6892 74 4.3319
19.6566 99 4.5089
how long
less than two years
more than two years
Total
Mean N Std. Deviation
Independent Samples Test
.062 .804 .123 97 .902 -1.9514 2.2098
.114 36.457 .910 -2.1737 2.4321
Equal variances assumed
Equal variances not assumed
F Sig.
Levene's Test for Equality of Variances
t dfSig.
(2-tailed) Lower Upper
95% ConfidenceInterval of the
Difference
t-test for Equality of Means
As can be seen from Figure 5.22, at a significance value of .902, we must accept
the null hypothesis. This means that from the data, there is no significant statistical
difference between respondents, taking into account the total sum of the barriers of
innovation, and the amount of time they have had an online presence.
A similar analysis was then conducted investigating the difference between the
length of time a respondents business was online, and their total level of agreement with
the benefits of online promotion. This hence, investigates if the longer a business has
145
Figure 5.22
Figure 5.20
Figure 5.21
been online, the more the positive their outlook of online promotion. The following
Independent Samples T-Test was generated (Figure 5.23).
Independent Samples Test
1.083 .301 -.676 100 .501 -3.2912 1.6192
-.622 37.942 .538 -3.5582 1.8862
Equal variances assumed
Equal variances not assumed
F Sig.
Levene's Test for Equality ofVariances
t dfSig.
(2-tailed) Lower Upper
95% ConfidenceInterval of the
Difference
t-test for Equality of Means
Hence we see that a corresponding analysis, but in the case of total agreement of
the uses of online promotion, as opposed to the barriers of innovation, also leads to the
acceptance of the null hypothesis.
5.6 The Users of Online Promotion – the accountability, measurability and
value of it to their business
The concept of the creation of value is important when considering promotional
efforts. The following section will investigate this area.
5.6.1 Value towards margins, sales and awareness
Primarily, online promotion was suggested to benefit the SME in three value
driven ways, by improving sales margins, by improving sales, or by improving
awareness of the business. A simple frequency analysis was run on the variables
‘bnftsale’, ‘bnftmarg’ and ‘bnftawar’, highlighting a number of results.
146
Figure 5.23
147
Firstly, as shown in Figure 5.24,
there is a high level of uncertainty
as regards the benefits of online
promotion towards the respondent
companies margins, with 38
percent claiming ‘don’t know’ as
the answer to this question.
Missing values counted for 2.1
percent of this particular analysis.
38 percent are also not getting any
value on the side of margins, from
online promotion.
Figure 5.25 highlights that 50
percent of respondents claim that
they are benefiting from increased
sales as a result of online
promotion. 31 percent of
respondents are unsure.
Benefits to Sales
Benefits to Margins
Benefits of sales
Benefits of margins
Figure 5.25
Figure 5.24
Figure 5.26
5.6.2 Inter-Relationships
One could assume in essence, that the longer one has had experience of the
Internet and it’s promotional benefits, the more certain they might be of its benefits to
their companies’ sales, margins and awareness. Hence, the following crosstabulations
were generated, to shed light on this hypothesis.
In this case, the three variables were crosstabulated, with the variable describing
how long the business has had a website online (web_time), in all three cases. The
highest percentage value in all three tables is also the ‘yes’ case crosstabulated against
148
Figure 5.26 shows how 68 percent of
respondents claim that their business
is benefiting from increased
awareness as a result, with the lowest
number not gaining any value, at 13
percent. Hence, most respondents are
confident that they are benefiting
mostly from increased awareness as
a result of online promotion.
Benefits to Sales
Benefits of awareness
Benefiting from Sales X Length of Time Online
Benefiting from Awareness X Length of Time Online
the ‘more than three years’ case. The occurrences of the ‘yes’ case also increase the
more the time variable increases. An, example of two of these apparent interactions,
which occurs in all three cases are shown the following crosstabulation tables.
is the company benefiting from sales with online promotion * How long have they had the site? Crosstabulation
1 6 3 4 14
7.1% 42.9% 21.4% 28.6% 100.0%
6 11 7 20 44
13.6% 25.0% 15.9% 45.5% 100.0%
7 7 2 7 23
30.4% 30.4% 8.7% 30.4% 100.0%
14 24 12 31 81
Count
% within is the companybenefiting from sales withonline promotion
Count
% within is the companybenefiting from sales withonline promotion
Count
% within is the companybenefiting from sales withonline promotion
Count
no
yes
don't know
is the companybenefiting fromsales with onlinepromotion
Total
Less than 6months
More thanone year
More thantwo years
More thanthree years
How long have they had the site?
Total
is the company benefiting from increased awareness from online promotion * How long have they had the site?Crosstabulation
1 4 1 3 9
11.1% 44.4% 11.1% 33.3% 100.0%
9 12 11 26 58
15.5% 20.7% 19.0% 44.8% 100.0%
4 8 2 14
28.6% 57.1% 14.3% 100.0%
14 24 12 31 81
Count
% within is the companybenefiting from increasedawareness from onlinepromotion
Count
% within is the companybenefiting from increasedawareness from onlinepromotion
Count
% within is the companybenefiting from increasedawareness from onlinepromotion
Count
no
yes
don't know
is the companybenefiting fromincreasedawareness fromonlinepromotion
Less than6 months
More thanone year
More thantwo years
More thanthree years
How long have they had the site?
Total
Hence, to statistically test the significance of these tables, three hypotheses are
suggested.
A/
H0: There is no significant relationship between a company’s awareness of the
benefits of online promotion to their margins
H1: There is a significant relationship between a company’s awareness of the
benefits of online promotion to their margins
Chi-square = .176 therefore we accept the null hypothesis.
149
Figure 5.27
Figure 5.28
B/
H0: There is no significant relationship between a company’s awareness of the
benefits of online promotion to their sales
H1: there is a significant relationship between a company’s awareness of the benefits
of online promotion to their sales
Chi-square = .325 therefore we accept the null hypothesis.
C/
H0: There is no significant relationship between a company’s awareness of the
benefits of online promotion to their awareness in the market
H1: There is a significant relationship between a company’s awareness of the
benefits of online promotion to their awareness in the market
Chi-square = .047 therefore we accept the alternative hypothesis.
To summarise, in the case of hypothesis C, the study finds that the longer an
SME respondent has had an online presence, the more certain they are of the benefits of
online promotion to the awareness of their firm. In the case of the other two factors, of
sales and margins, the study agrees with Lyons (1998) and Munster (2000), who in the
study Introduction, state that there is a significant uncertainty towards how the new
medium can add value.
5.6.3 Defined Objectives
As also outlined in the thesis introduction, it is suggested that SME’s and
businesses in general engage in online promotion “because it seemed like a good thing
to do.” Hence, the level of objectivity of respondents was analysed, to determine
whether or not Irish SME’s businesses have a set number of promotional objectives in
mind when employing online promotion, and in the case of those that to set objectives,
to see if the objectives have been met.
150
As can be seen from Figure 5.29, 57 percent of respondents do not consider any
promotion objectives when engaging in online promotion. Of the 43 percent that do,
there is no considerable difference between the 53 percent of respondents who admit
that their objectives were fulfilled, and the 47 percent stating that they weren’t. This
goes some way in agreeing with Munster (2000) and Lyons (1998), in that Irish SME’s
are adopting a ‘learn as you go’ type approach to online promotion.
5.7 The Future
This section will examine the future place of online tools in the promotional mix
of respondents’ businesses.
5.7.1 Statement
151
Figure 5.29
To begin, the level of agreement of Irish SME respondents, was examined, in
light of the statement that the “Internet is going redefine the way Irish businesses
operate in the future.”
By employing a means analysis on the ‘statemnt’ variable, it was found that the
mean value of agreement is 4.77. This is seen below in Figure 5.30. This figure is from
a possible range of –7 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). The most commonly
occurring answer (the mode) was the highest level of agreement of 7.
Statistics
Level of agreement whether the internet will redefinethe way irish businesses promote in the future
148
2
4.77
5.00
7
706
Valid
Missing
N
Mean
Median
Mode
Sum
Further investigation into the spread of responses highlighted that no responses
occurred in some of the lower categories, so cases were grouped together and recoded
evenly, to represent a new 5-point scale, similar to other scale questions in the study.
Again, there were no responses within the lower ‘strongly disagree’ case, so this was
recoded again into a 4-part scale, seen below in Figure 5.31. This was recoded in turn
into a three part scale (Figure 5.32), to more accurately represent the responses,
consisting of the cases disagree, neutral and agree.
152
Figure 5.30
Level of statement agreement
strongly agreeagreeneutraldisagree
Pe
rce
nt
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
59
33
6
statement
statement
agreeneutraldisagree
Pe
rce
nt
100
80
60
40
20
0
88
11
Hence, it is suggested that 88 percent of Irish SME respondents believe that the
Internet is going to redefine the way Irish businesses promote in the future. A mere 1.4
percent of respondents disagree with this statement.
This represents a clear ‘vote of confidence’ of the relevance of online promotion
in the Irish SME sector. This figure also represents a clear increase from a similar
survey conducted in 1998 by the NUI, Galway. The results of that survey found that 33
percent of SME respondents did not find that the Internet was vital to their business, as
opposed to the much lower 1.4 percent level of this research study.
5.7.2 Respondents Plans of Action
153
Figure 5.31
Figure 5.32
Respondent Plan of Action
In the previous finding, it is noted that vast majority of respondents believe that
the Internet is going to alter the way Irish SME’s conduct their business. If this is true,
then it is necessary to observe how these respondents are going to deal with the changes
in their competitive environment. The following analysis investigates whether Irish
SME respondents plan to creating or updating a company website, and/ or begin to
implement online techniques into their promotion strategy, within the next year.
The positive results of the previous finding are shown to be reflected in the
actual intentions of respondents. As described in Figure 5.33, of respondent companies
without a web site at time of research, 81.6 percent plan to create/ update one in the next
year. Of those currently with a website, 97.2 percent of these companies plan to
continue their presence.
Similarly, as seen in Figure 5.34, 79 percent of respondents not using online
promotion at time of writing plan to do so in the next year. Of those that are currently
promoting online, 97.6 percent of these respondents wish to continue doing so for the
next year.
18.4% 81.6%
17.9% 82.1%
2.8% 97.2%
7.5% 92.5%
plans to create / updatewebsite in the next year
plan to promote onlinein the next year
no
plans to create / updatewebsite in the next year
plan to promote onlinein the next year
yes
does the companyhave a website
%
no
%
yes
154
Figure 5.33
11.5% 88.5%
21.3% 78.7%
3.5% 96.5%
2.4% 97.6%
plans to create / updatewebsite in the next year
plan to promote onlinein the next year
no
plans to create / updatewebsite in the next year
plan to promote onlinein the next year
yes
does the companyuse onlinepromotion
%
no
%
yes
From an overall perspective, as seen in figure 5.35, 93.2 percent of total
respondents claim that they will create their site or update their current site in the next
year, with almost 90 percent planning to promote online within the year. This represents
a considerable level of confidence in the area of online promotion for Irish SME’s.
5.8 Analysis of open-ended question.
In addition to the closed questions of the research instrument, respondents were
also asked to complete a final open ended question, it being “How do you think that
promotion and marketing using the Internet (or will not) change the way you conduct
business?”
155
Irish SME’s Online Plans for the next year (overall)
Figure 5.34
Figure 5.35
Of 150 respondents, 89 responded to this optional question. The full transcript of
these responses can be seen in appendix x. Responses were individually analysed, and
the key, broad points of each was noted. Below are table highlighting the key points,
both positive and negative, that arose, and the frequencies of their occurrences.
5.8.1 Positive Effects on Business Operations
Frequency Positive Aspects
20
More global presence/ new markets
17 Better service & customer support
17 Efficiency
8 Opportunities in potential customer acquisition
7 Increased awareness
7 Opportunity to display catalogue/ product offering
4 Better targeting possibilities
3 Reduce traditional promotion expense
3 Keeping up with competition
3 A better sales channel
1 Innovation
1 Measurability
As shown in Section 5.4.2, the most popular way that respondents believe that
Internet promotion will change their business is in the area of the opening up of new
global markets, with small amounts of resources. For the purposes of the study, privacy
will be retained, and the actual quotes will not be included.
The second most popular aspect which respondents identified as a benefit of
online promotion, was in the area of increased customer support and service
possibilities. Also, promotion efficiencies, by the way of cost and time savings
economies, were mentioned on a par with the aforementioned benefits.
156
Figure 5.37
Thirdly, respondents also identified the promotion opportunities for potential
customer acquisition.
5.8.2 Negative Effects on Business Operations
As regards the negative comments given by respondents towards the impacts of
online promotion, the primary reason given was that it was simply not applicable to
their business
Frequency Negative Aspects
4
Not applicable to type of business
3 Not enough face to face communication
3 Not enough consumers online
2 Internet Service Provider fixed charges too high
2 Lack of a sound business model
2 Increased e-mail spamming
2 Lack of certainty/ knowledge
Two other significant areas of concern identified by respondents are that online
promotion does not enable the element of face-to-face communication, and that there
are currently not enough consumers online, to merit the use of online promotion.
Thirdly, other aspects such as ISP fixed charge prices, the lack of a sound
business model, and the lack of understanding/ skills are cited, as problems respondents
believe relevant to online promotion.
157
Figure 5.38
5.9 Conclusion
The analysis above deals with each research objective and hypothesis,
explaining, answering, and reviewing each in the light of the first three chapters. All
analysis was carried out with the use of SPSS 9.0, and an example of the research
datasheet can be seen in the Appendix. With the analysis implemented,
recommendations and conclusions derived from these results are explained in detail in
the following chapter.
158